High-Rise Block in Turin
At 166 metres, the tower is a distinctive feature in the Turin cityscape in which its height is surpassed only just by the tip of the historic “Mole Antonelliana”, the national film museum. Its brilliant white loadbearing structure – tapering columns connected by diagonal and horizontal ties – appears to shimmer as the defining design element through the glazed double facade. Through the close linking with the surrounding public open space, the new seat of one of Italy’s biggest banks becomes part of the daily lives of the city’s inhabitants, promising more than an extravagant expression of the monetary strength of the banking industry: designed specifically with sustainability in mind and since awarded the LEED Platinum certificate, the striking structure rises from the centre of the newly designed Nicola Grosa Park and rests on a foundation of parking garages and utility services rooms, a restaurant and a children’s nursery with an internal courtyard. Slightly offset and with seats for more than 350, a multifunctional auditorium that can be used for public presentations and exhibitions floats above the ground plane. Twenty-seven office floors with north-facing meeting and training rooms extend above this level. A reinforced concrete circulation core to the north end of the floor plate and external steel columns allow open, flexible office floor layouts oriented to the west and east with plenty of natural light entering the spaces through a slender-framed double facade. The integrated photovoltaic arrays on the southern facade provide a significant contribution to the power required to operate the building – and is only one component of the comprehensive energy concept, with night cooling and natural ventilation through the facade, and the use of ground and rain water. A glazed stair cantilevers from the south elevation and contains climbing plants like a conservatory. It filters sunlight and provides a direct connection between the office floors. The tower is topped by a roof pavilion, inspired by the nineteenth century great glasshouses and can be accessed by the general public. This multi-storey roof garden with a restaurant and exhibition area offers a unique view of the Turin Alpine panorama.
